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Historical Timeline of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company
(1857-1962)

The following is a chronology of events.

1857

William Seward
Burroughs was born.

1885

The first workable adding and listing machine is built and patented in
St. Lewis, Missouri, by
William Seward Burroughs.

W. S.
Burroughs files first patent application.

1886

The
American Arithmometer Company is formed on January 20.

The sales of the first adding and listing machine of the American
Arithmometer Company began at a price of $475 each.

Thomas
Metcalfe was elected the first president of the American Arithmometer Company.

1890

First machines demonstrated in banks in New
York and St. Lewis.

W. S. Burroughs sails to England with a new
model developed to tabulate English currency in an effort to attract investors.

1891

Charles E.
Barney becomes the second president of the American Arithmometer Company.

First advertisement - The Burroughs
Registering Accountant.

1895

Total
sales for 1895 were 284 machines.

First dividend is paid to stockholders.

1898

William
Seward Burroughs dies at Citronelle, Alabama.

1900

Total
sales for 1900 were 972 machines.

Won gold medal at the Paris
Exposition.

1902

Joseph
Boyer became the third and last president of the American Arithmometer Company.

1903

Joseph Boyer secretly enters into an agreement to acquire the Addograph
Manufacturing Company, whose director is Hubert Hopkins. The name Hopkins later
becomes famous for the Moon–Hopkins machine.James Dalton, president of the Addograph Company, formed the Adding Typewriter Company
that same year. It was later called
the Dalton Adding Machine Company.

1904

The
Company moves to Detroit from St. Louis with all employees in one day on a
special train called the "Clover Leaf Express."

1905

The
Company is renamed the Burroughs Adding Machine Company.

Total
sales for 1905 was 7,804 machines.

Employment
rises to 1,200.

1906

Joseph
Boyer attempts to acquire the Adder Machine Company

The Ford Motor Company produces a business car equipped with a special
rack large enough to carry an adding machine.The car is known as the “Burroughs Special."

1907

The 50,000th
Burroughs machine is manufactured.

1908

Burroughs
acquires the Universal Adding Machine Company of Missouri.

1909

Modern Business, an English office journal, says of the Burroughs adding
machine it has just purchased, “It brings mechanical skill almost to the point
of human intelligence…. it is amazing, but it is true."

Burroughs
acquires the Pike Adding Machine Company of New Jersey.

1910

The first “duplex” adding machine, featuring both subtotals and grand
totals, is placed on the market.

1911

The first subtracting-adding machine is produced.It is regarded as a major forward step for bank postings.

The first model of a Burroughs calculator is introduced.Bearing a striking similarity to the Felt & Tarrant machine,
litigation soon followed.

1912

New salesmen receive four weeks of training in the
operation and application of
Burroughs machines.

1916

Burroughs Clearing House magazine publication begins.

1917

Burroughs Adding Machine Company of Canada, Ltd., in Winsor, Ontario, (20
miles from the Detroit home office) is organized.

Construction begins on a five-floor building adjacent to the main factory
in Detroit.This building was later
rebuilt to become the World Headquarters for the Burroughs Corporation in 1966.

1920

A total of 800,000 machines have been sold worldwide and employment has
reached 12,000.

Standish Backus is elected president, succeeding Joseph Boyer.

1921

Burroughs purchases the Moon-Hopkins Billing Machine Company of Missouri,
and the Moon-Hopkins machine is redesigned and improved.The machine combines an electronic typewriter with a calculating machine.In the service ranks, the “Moon” as it was called, was a departure
from past numeric-only machines.

1924

Burroughs issues stock and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Burroughs establishes major operations in Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.

1925

Burroughs introduces the “Burroughs Portable” adding machine,
weighing less than 20 lbs. and selling for less than $100.Two hundred a day are produced in Detroit and 22,000 are sold in the
first eight months following release.

Societe Anoyme Burroughs at Brussels, Belgium, is organized.

Burroughs machines are being sold in 60 countries.Special non-decimal machines are being built and used in a variety of
applications: by grocers in Petrograd, Russia, by clerks of the East Bengel
Railway in India and the DeBeers diamond mines in Africa, and by Argentine
cattle auctioneers.

1926

The one-millionth Burroughs machine is produced at the Detroit
Plant.

A new series of Burroughs bookkeeping machines is introduced.It includes a “duplex subtractor” and “multiple register.”

Burroughs establishes major operations in Australia, Austria, Denmark,
New Zealand, the Philippine Islands, South Africa, and Switzerland.

1930

Burroughs introduces a new “Passbook Machine” for savings bank
bookkeeping.

1931

Burroughs introduces the “Burroughs Standard Typewriter”
at national business shows in New York and Chicago.

1933

The first duplex electric calculator is released.

1935

The Burroughs product line now includes 450 standard models.

1938

A major manufacturing facility in Plymouth, Michigan is completed and occupied.

1940

Burroughs begins manufacturing a “service model” portable adding
machine in khaki color for the government.Later production in Army green included a special keyboard with features
for dust and spark protection.

1942

Burroughs production of machines, like automobile production, is now
restricted to the needs of the Army, Navy, lend-lease program, and war
contractors. Production of the Norden bombsight begins.

1943

Standish Backus resigns as president of the Company because of ill health.
He is succeeded by Alfred J. Doughty.

1944

Burroughs
is awarded an Army-Navy “E” for outstanding achievement.

1946

Burroughs efforts are again directed toward the commercial business
machine market. Forty-six new models are
introduced in this year.

James S. Coleman succeeds Alfred J. Doughty as president.

1947

The
Burroughs “B” trademark is adopted.

1948

The Company’s revenues exceed $100 million and its bookkeeping
machines are used by an estimated 14,000 banks.

1949

Burroughs
acquires Mittag & Volger and Acme Carbon & Ribbon Company.

Permanent facilities are established for electronic research and
development in the Philadelphia area.

1950

The first Sensimatic accounting machine with programmed control panel is
released.It is considered the
greatest advance in accounting machines in 25 years.

1951

Burroughs Electronic Accounting Machine, named BEAM, begins development.It is the first reach toward computer development at Burroughs.

1952

Burroughs
builds an electronic memory system for the ENIAC computer.

1953

The Company’s name is changed from the Burroughs Adding Machine Company
to the Burroughs Corporation.

Burroughs delivers UDEC (Unitized Digital Electronic Computer) to the
Wayne State University Computation Lab in Detroit. UDEC weighs several tons,
contains 10 miles of wire and cable, and uses 3,000 vacuum tubes and 7,000
transistors.

1954

Burroughs new Research Center in Paoli, Pennsylvania, is opened.

Burroughs introduces the E101 desk-size electronic digital computer for
scientific engineering and business applications. The system, which sells
for $30,000, includes a magnetic drum memory.

Burroughs new Sensimatic bank posting machine, embodying a number of automatic
features, is introduced.

Burroughs acquires Haydu Brothers of Plainfield, New Jersey, manufacturers of
vacuum tubes and other electronic components, to produce special purpose
electronic tubes for data display which have resulted from research at the Paoli
laboratory.

1955

Burroughs announces the Sensitronic financial accounting machine which reads
from and writes on magnetic striped ledger cards and effectively doubles back
posting production.

Burroughs receives contracts from the U.S. Air Force and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology to build radar data processing equipment for use in SAGE
(Semi-Automatic Ground Environment), a system designed to protect the
continental United States from enemy air attack.

Automatic bank bookkeeping systems are introduced. These units
- an
imprinter, a coder, and a sorter - are designed to bring a high degree of
automation to check processing.

Burroughs acquires the Todd Company of Rochester, New York, a major supplier of
checks, business forms, and check writers and signers.

The Company's total revenues exceed $200 million for the first time, reaching
$218.6 million.

1956

Burroughs acquires the ElectroData Corporation of Pasadena, California, a
leading producer of computing hardware.

Burroughs is awarded an Air Force contract to develop a transistorized guidance
computer to direct the launch of the Atlas Intercontinental Ballistic Missile
(ICBM).

The Company's Great Valley Laboratories, four miles from the Central Laboratory
at Paoli, are opened.

1957

Burroughs develops the Nixie electronic readout tube for electronic display of
alphanumeric information. It is to become the industry's most widely used in-line
display device.

The Datatron 200 is introduced. The high-speed, large-scale computer rents for
$15,000 monthly and has 20 times the productivity capacity of its price competitors.
It has internal magnetic core memory.

Burroughs delivers the first ground guidance computer to the Air Force at Cape
Canaveral, Florida, for use in guiding the launch of early Atlas ICBM. It
is the world's first operational transistorized computer. A later version
will guide the launch of every American astronaut to orbit the earth in the Mercury
and Gemini programs.

1958

Ray
R. Eppert succeeds John S. Coleman as president of the Company after the
latter's death.

Burroughs is awarded contracts of more than $37 million to manufacturer
additional Atlas missile guidance computers for Air Force space flight and
ballistic missile launch sites.

The United States Post Office awards Burroughs a $1.2 million contract for
design, development, and production of automatic letter-sorting machines.
Each letter-sorter sorts 43,000 letters per hour.

1959

The
U.S. Air Force selects Burroughs as program manager for the ALRI (Airborne Long
Range Input) program, a system for extending the SAGE air defense network
seaward by placing radar and data processing equipment aboard aircraft.

Burroughs introduces the B 251 visible record computer.
The system reads
data from checks and other financial documents, then automatically updates a
customer's printer account record in a fraction of a second.

Burroughs digital computers are delivered to the U.S. Navy for use in its
Polaris program. The "stabilization data computers" will provide
a high degree of accuracy for navigation systems of nuclear-powered,
Polaris-firing submarines.

RVD (Radar Video Digitizer) and RVDP (Radar Video Data Processor) are developed
in conjunction with Burroughs-FAA air traffic control study. Both systems change
radar signals into digitized impulses that can be fed into a computer as useful
data, allowing FAA flight controllers to instantly see approaching aircraft in
crowded airport patterns.

1961

Burroughs electronic ground guidance computer successfully guides Atlas,
Mercury, and Ranger vehicles into orbit. Since their installation at Cape
Canaveral in 1957, they have never caused mission failure, error, or delay.

Burroughs is named by the U.S. Air Force as hardware contractor for the NORAD
Combat Operations Center in Cheyenne Mountain near Colorado Springs,
Colorado. The Company will design and install a giant computer complex and
data display system for split-second evaluation of threats to the North American
continent, using input from satellites and radar throughout the world.

The Company announces its B 5000 solid state modular data processing system,
which is considered the most advanced business and scientific computer offered by any manufacturer. Departing from traditional concepts of electronic
computer design, the B 5000 is the first computer designed especially for
automatic programming or the exclusive use of compiler languages. The B 5000 is
later to be regarded as a decade ahead of its time in terms of competitive
systems design due to its advanced features including "virtual
memory."

Burroughs introduces the B 200 series of small to medium scale solid state
computers.

1962

Burroughs is presented President Kennedy's E for Export award for significant
contributions to the national export program.

The U.S. Air Force orders 17 D 825 systems for the BUIC
(Back-Up Interceptor
Control) continental air defense network, a back-up system to SAGE.

A Burroughs guidance computer guides Project Mercury astronauts John Glenn,
Scott Carpenter, and Wally Schirra into earth orbit and steers Ranger IV on its successful
flight to the moon.